Dali Old Town and Erhai Lake

National Famous Historical And Cultural City; Erhai Lake Protected Area · Dali, Yunnan

A walled Bai town of grey-tiled houses, stone-lined streams and gate towers set between the long wall of the Cangshan mountains and the blue expanse of Erhai Lake, at about 2,000 metres in western Yunnan. For five centuries this valley was the heart of the independent Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms, rivals of Tang and Song China, and the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple - the tallest nearly 70 metres high and more than a thousand years old - still stand beneath the mountains north of town. The present walls date from the Ming dynasty. Today Dali mixes Bai culture, tie-dye workshops and markets with cafes, guesthouses and the backpacker lanes that made it famous. Around it lie some of Yunnan's loveliest landscapes: a car-free ecological corridor for cycling along Erhai's western shore, the Bai merchant town of Xizhou with its carved courtyards and baked baba bread, lakeside villages, and the Jade Belt Road, a trail contouring along the flank of Cangshan with views over the whole lake. Dali station, the hub for trains to Kunming and Lijiang, is in Xiaguan, about 20 km south.

Dali Ancient City, Dali City, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Dali, Yunnan, China

The old town is open at all hours and free. Three Pagodas roughly 7:10-19:00 (May-early October) and 7:30-18:30 otherwise. Xizhou and the Erhai corridor accessible all day.

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